IDLO AND UNHCR
on statelessness and effective
implementation of those conventions
through domestic laws and policies
remains the most effective way to
prevent and resolve statelessness.
The 1961 Convention remains the only
universal instrument that elaborates
clear, detailed, and concrete safeguards
to ensure a fair and appropriate
response to statelessness.26 Accession
to the 1961 Convention equips States
with the means to avoid and resolve
nationality-related disputes and
mobilise international support to
address the prevention and reduction
of statelessness. Accession may
further boost legal transparency and
predictability in States’ responses to
the threat of statelessness through the
promotion of common safeguards.
Box 3: Compliance with the 1961 Convention in The Philippines
The Philippines moved swiftly following its accession to the 1961 Convention in March 2022. The country’s Senate
passed the Foundling Recognition and Protection Act in 2022. This legislation ensures that foundlings (abandoned
children whose parents are unknown) found in The Philippines or in The Philippines’s embassies, consulates, and
territories are recognised as Philippines’ nationals.27
Legal empowerment and
access to justice
When stateless people seek to access
justice, they face multiple specific
forms of exclusion in addition to
the everyday barriers encountered
by the general population. While
broader issues of cost, proximity, and
language impede access to justice
for stateless people, stateless people
are also negatively affected by their
lack of legal standing, procedural
obstacles (for example, related to lack
of national ID), and fear of engaging
with institutions that might behave
prejudicially or sanction them based
on their stateless status, among other
challenges. Stateless people are often
rendered invisible within the justice
system, unable to claim their rights,
receive legal services, or challenge
their fundamental lack of legal status,
and remain dependent on support from
civil society and the few international
bodies charged with addressing the
problem. Denial of access to justice
also negatively affects the ability
of stateless people to obtain basic
services, or remedy deprivation of
service delivery: and to assert their
right to participate in civic affairs,
and therefore shape solutions to their
own problems through democratic
governance.
The Commission on Legal
Empowerment of the Poor defines
legal empowerment as the process
through which people “are enabled
to use the law to advance their rights
and their interests in relation to the
State and the market.”28 Among other
dimensions, legal empowerment
includes legal education, especially
for the most vulnerable and excluded
constituencies; provision of legal aid
and paralegal services; protection of
civic space that allows people to act
collectively to demand realisation
of their rights, and of human rights
defenders who might be threatened
in doing so. For the rule of law
to act as an effective enabler of
people’s access to justice and for
sustainable development, all people
must be able to realise their rights in
practice,29 including through access
to public services and participation in
governance processes, irrespective of
nationality or legal status. Pathways
must be available for stateless people
to demand fulfilment of their rights,
seek remedy for violations, and resolve
disputes with others and the State.
For this reason, legal empowerment
is essential, as shown in the examples
below from various parts of the world.
Box 4: Legal empowerment of stateless people in Uganda
In Uganda, IDLO has supported pathways to justice for refugees who do not enjoy nationality rights and who thus,
despite protracted residency, are unable to acquire Ugandan citizenship.30 IDLO’s Community Justice Programme
supports local partners like World Voices Uganda to provide legal aid to South Sudanese refugees in Kyegegwa district,
many of whom needed legal redress including legal identity. Trained Community Legal Volunteers have provided legal
education and supported refugees, including those at risk of statelessness, to secure documents including movement
permits and identity cards, realise their rights, access services, and resolve disputes. Community Legal Volunteers
have also worked to link the informal justice structures, such as the bataka courts, to the statutory justice system in
ways that improved access to justice for people experiencing displacement and statelessness.
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